USD Changemaker HUB

Meet the 2013 ONE Challenge Winners

jcrivas — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:32:22 +0000

The USD community unites to address a big environmental challenge. On April 23, we celebrated Earth Day and announced the winners of the 2013 ONE Challenge focusing on reducing wasteful production and consumption. The first winner was Shannon Schumacher, a junior studying International Relations who proposed a doable initiative to sell and reuse furniture, appliances and other items that students discard at the end of each academic year. The USD community then voted for their favorite ideas via social media. One winning idea was developed by USD seniors Chantale Serad and Jenna Van Horn, who proposed having portable recycling machines for plastic bottles returning CRV refunds on campus cards. Another winner was Erik Kim-Holmgren, an Executive registrar in the Law School, with an idea for using discarded cooking oil for biodiesel to be used in USD transportation.

Creating Ideas for Change

jcrivas — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:57:29 +0000

It’s time to voice your opinion and vote to choose the 2013 USD ONE Challenge winners. Presented by The Changemaker Hub in partnership with the Office of Sustainability, this initiative has united our community’s imagination, hard work and passion to generate ideas for making a difference on the 2013 theme The Environment, Wasteful Production and Consumption. Visit our Facebook page to view the 5 finalist videos and join us Tuesday, April 23 from 12-2pm to celebrate Earth Day where the winners will be announced.

A Summer of Discovery and Changemaking

jcrivas — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 22:50:58 +0000

The 2013 Changemaker Summer Fellows program supports students wanting to explore changemaking opportunities by providing financial support and mentoring. This initiative promotes students’ understanding of social issues and social justice as they actively participate in a community-based or social enterprise experience, locally or abroad. The program offers $2,000 for students to develop their skills in framing social issues and creating innovative approaches to addressing them. Learn more about the program here

A Combustion of Changemakers

jcrivas — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:56:31 +0000

What does a President of a university in Ghana have in common with a Provost and a student from the University of San Diego? At the inaugural panel of the 2013 Ashoka U Exchange hosted by the University of San Diego, the three of them shared similar passion for the idea that social change is a collective interest. Further united by new technologies and fresh thinking we can innovate more to solve complex social problems and create a better world. The urgency in the air called for individuals believing in their changemaking potential, reminding us that young people are not the future, they are the present. From different points of view, the university, whether in Accra or in San Diego, continues to be a powerful space for exploring, learning, and connecting for social change. It is a place for unlocking the u in the universe.

Changemaker CASE Awards

jcrivas — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:14:03 +0000

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education — an organization of higher education experts in alumni relations, communications, fundraising and marketing — recently gave the University of San Diego three Gold Awards of Excellence for materials showcasing the USD Changemaker Campus message. The awards recognize the work of USD’s Marketing and Strategic Partnership team, whose innovative campaigns include an interactive chalkboard where faculty, staff, students and prospective students have the opportunity to convey and promote a dialogue about what it means to be a changemaker.

Don’t miss the TEDx AshokaU at the Balboa Theater

jcrivas — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:52:38 +0000

How often do you hear ideas worth spreading? Don’t miss a unique chance to be inspired and to learn from outstanding changemakers at the upcoming TEDx AshokaU event, happening in San Diego’s Balboa Theatre on Friday, Feb 22 at 5pm. In this event, seven superb social entrepreneurs and cutting-edge thinkers from all over the world will invite you to think carefully about “Finding Your Place in the Universe.” They will share possibilities and ways of creating a better world. The lineup consists of Ashoka Fellows: Alex Bernadotte, Andreas Heinecke, Billy Parish and Felipe Vergara, as well as Eden Full, Anya Kamenetz and San Diego’s Chris Crane. This TEDx AshokaU will take place during the AshokaU Exchange hosted by USD. Get your tickets here

Live, Work, and Play Your Passion

jcrivas — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 04:43:00 +0000

The Changemaker Hub is now a partner of iOnPoverty, an organization ideating and producing video interviews with movers and shakers. iOnPoverty was founded by Jonathan Lewis after listening to students and young professional looking for careers with conscience. This month we feature their video on Tiffany Persons the founder and director of Shine On Sierra Leone, an innovative enterprise for raising awareness and creating sustainable programs to promote prosperous self-reliant communities all over the world.

Join us at the Changemaker FEST!

jcrivas — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 20:40:18 +0000

Changemaker Fest is a week dedicated to defining, exploring, and putting change into action. Join us throughout the week of November 5 – 9, 2012, to celebrate our one-year designation as an Ashoka U Changemaker Campus. A student driven week of celebration, exploring the many ways in which students, faculty, and community leaders can become practitioners of changemaking on a daily basis, tackling change within oneself as well as on local, national and global levels. In the spirit of a Changemaker Campus, many USD centers, institutes and programs have collaborated in the design of the diverse activities and will be actively engaged in the events. On Thursday, November 8th, from 12:15-2:30PM we will be hosting a grand Changemaker FEST finale, a campus-wide gathering and celebration of all that our community is doing and our commitment to creating positive change in the world. Click here to learn more about it.

Cultivating Justice with Women PeaceMakers

jcrivas — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:10:49 +0000

The Women PeaceMakers Program documents the stories and peacebuilding practices of international women leaders. Each year, four women are paired with four professional writers to record their unique stories of living in conflict and building peace. Women who are on the frontline efforts to end violence and secure a just peace will share, document and build upon their unique peacemaking stories during an eight-week residency at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice. This residency gives the USD community a chance to meet, learn and understand the resident Women PeaceMakers as the women, mothers, daughters and activists that they are. This year, the program celebrates its 10-year anniversary with the return of 33 Women PeaceMakers for a conference titled, “Breaking Barriers: What it will take to achieve security, justice and peace.”

A Cup of Joe for a Joe

jcrivas — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:49:26 +0000

There’s nothing like the taste of a shared cup of coffee, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or Denver. Brian Laliberte ’86 has been the COO of Green Beans Coffee, operating 70-plus cafes located on or near military bases in the U.S., the Middle East and West Africa. Green Beans Coffee gives back to the military community by donating a portion of each transaction at their coffee houses to organizations serving the men and women in uniform. Just like true Changemakers, Laliberte and his team decided to go one step further by bringing some comfort to soldiers who are far from home. With their “Cup of Joe for a Joe” program Laliberte made it easy for anyone in the world to go online, buy a cup of coffee, and have it delivered with a personal letter of thanks to a soldier overseas. To date, more than 500,000 Cup of Joes have been purchased for deployed troops, and countless connections between civilians and soldiers have been established.